This incident is notable for its massiveness. More than 60 people saw the newcomers simultaneously.
It was Wednesday, September 14, 1994, a typical school day at Ariel School, a rural area in the middle of grasslands outside Ruva.
During the big break, 62 students aged 5 to 12 ran out to play in the backyard of the school. And suddenly they saw several small disc-shaped objects descending from the sky nearby.
The ships landed and then several unusual creatures came out of them and one of them approached the children. The contact lasted about 15 minutes, but the children found it difficult to explain what exactly happened during it. Then the creatures flew back to heaven in their ships, and the children returned to their classes.
It was from their strange, agitated behavior and lively discussion of what they saw that the teachers realized that something unusual had happened. However, they continued to teach as planned.
Drawing of one of the students.
But the very next day the entire local community was raised up, because the children returned home and told their parents about everything. Soon the entire city of Ruva knew about the visit of the aliens and the journalists came to the school to interview the children.
The children were interviewed by John Mack and Tim Leach of the local Air Force bureau. All the children, as one, told similar stories and drew similar pictures with disc-shaped objects. The aliens, according to their descriptions, were with huge eyes and "a bit like Michael Jackson."
Promotional video:
Drawing of one of the students.
On the same days, eyewitness reports of UFO sightings were received throughout the region, although astronomers said that people most likely saw a meteor shower. And two days after the incident at Ariel's school, that is, on September 16, two messages were received at once: a woman with a small son saw a column of light coming from the sky at night, and a truck driver saw unusual two-legged creatures on the road that night.
The playground near Ariel's school was next to a grove of trees and thickets of tough bushes, and it was among these thickets that the "plates" landed. There were 3 or 4 of them in total, and the children immediately saw them and although they were a little scared, none of them ran away from the playground - their curiosity was stronger.
Drawing of one of the students.
It should be mentioned that Ariel's school was a fairly expensive private school, mainly for whites and children of mixed origin, whose parents were employees of companies from South Africa or the UK. However, several local children also studied there. And in this regard, the primary perception of beings was different for different groups.
The local children initially mistook the aliens for goblins, tokoloshes (dwarf rapists) or creatures called "zvikwambo" and many of them cried, as they thought that these creatures would now attack, bite or even eat them.
The white students were not frightened at all, since at first they mistook the newcomer for "Mrs. Stevens's gardener", but then they saw that the figure had black and straight hair "like Michael Jackson", and not curly, and only then did they suspect that something was wrong.
Whether the alien said something to the children remained unknown, but judging by the stories of the children, the alien simply projected images and messages into their brains.
She also said that when the stranger looked at her, the girl had something like a vision in her head, in which "all the trees bent down and there was no air, and people were dying."
Isabelle, 10, says:
Another girl named Emma said similar things:
And a fifth grader named Francis said he had been warned that "something was going to happen" and that "there should be no pollution."
The incident was remarkably quickly forgotten, although journalist John Mack interviewing children was a Pulitzer Prize winner. However, no one paid attention to his material.
On the network, you can still find recordings of his interviews with schoolchildren, and Mac himself believed that something unusual had undoubtedly happened at Ariel's school. Also, this incident even has its own website www.arielphenomenon.com. But the feeling that all other people are treating this as some kind of prank. Unfortunately.